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Why You Absolutely Need to Go Mobile in 2018

This time of year, we’re all making changes to better ourselves. Maybe you’re looking to get rid of some of the clutter around your home or save more money or spend more time with your loved ones. Now’s the time to make the same effort to improve your business in 2018, too! If your store isn’t mobile responsive, start considering how you’ll incorporate a mobile-first philosophy into your store this year.

Responsive design is a flexible approach to developing a website that allows the website to scale and rearrange itself to fit any screen size, platform or orientation. This means your site looks good on every device and doesn’t require a different version of the website for smartphones or tablets.

Nearly one in five Volusion stores still use a separate version of their site for mobile visitors. If you’re one of these stores, now is absolutely the time to make the leap to a mobile-first website.

This type of design has been around for a while now, but not every site has moved over to this more user friendly design philosophy. In fact, nearly one in five Volusion stores still use a separate version of their site for mobile visitors. If you’re one of these stores, now is absolutely the time to make the leap to a mobile-first website. Consider these statistics:

Internet users spend an average of 69% of their screen time on smartphones (comScore)
Last year, mobile traffic reached 57% of all internet traffic (Search Engine Land)

60% of internet users start shopping on one device and continue or finish on a different one (Google)

This last Cyber Monday, mobile ecommerce sales reached $2 billion in a 24-hour period for the first time ever, and conversion rate on mobile had increased 10.1% to a conversion rate of 3.5% (CMO)
And if search engines are an important way you get customers, mobile is now more important than ever: Nearly 60% of all online searches are happening on mobile. To cater to this growing audience, Google is changing their index this year to a mobile-first index instead of the desktop-first index of years past. What this means is that Google will be basing your rankings on the content that appears on your site when viewed with a mobile device instead of the content that appears on your site when viewed on a desktop computer.

Bottom line: If you haven’t made the jump to a responsive website from mCommerce, you’re risking losing visibility in Google in the near future.

We hear a few major reasons for hesitating to make the switch, but moving to a responsive design is so important that I want to address them right here.

“A new design is so expensive!”

It doesn’t have to be! We have 11 themes that are absolutely free and have all of the functionality you need to run a successful store. If you’re looking for something a little different, our premium themes cost just $180, and we have customization options starting at just $680. Regardless of your preferred price point, you’re sure to find something that fits your store perfectly.

“I have custom coding that I spent a lot of money on.”

This concern is understandable — you’ve invested a lot to make your store just the way you want it, and you’ve come to rely on the functionality that custom coding has brought. But at this point, it’s time to start taking into account the needs of the mobile users (57% and growing!) who can’t use your store to its fullest. Our design services advisers can help you determine if there’s a way to reach the same goal without that custom coding or provide information as to what that custom coding would cost on a new mobile design.

“I’m worried I’ll lose my SEO value in a redesign.”

Any change carries some element of risk, but there’s so much upside to going responsive that I’m here to tell you that going responsive is worth the risk. I looked through our data from the last six months of custom design projects, and after a month with the new design, these stores’ traffic improved by 14% on average and their revenue increased by 55% on average.

Until January 31st, you can get a new look for the New Year with 15% off our custom design packages! Our ecommerce designers can help you get the store of your dreams and see huge increases in conversions and revenue so 2018 can be your business’s best year yet.

Have any questions about getting mobile friendly? Let us know in the comments!